A colorful Guizhou after transformation

In the past, my impression of Guizhou province could be described in just three words - damp, bumpy, poverty-stricken. And, it wasn't an exaggeration calling Guizhou an impoverished province. Official statistics reveal that, in 2015, 4.93 million people in the southwestern province were living in poverty, accounting for nearly 9 percent of the number of people in China who were living in poverty. That made Guizhou the poorest province in the country.

However, during my recent visit to Guizhou, I was stunned in a positive way. The image of poverty had faded. The province's highlands area has recorded the highest GDP growth rate in the country, its infrastructure has developed rapidly, the province is home to the world's largest radio telescope, FAST, and some of the world's biggest tech companies have set themselves up in Guizhou.

amy@chinadailyhk.com

1. Guizhou province's sprawling high-speed rail network now links up its capital city, Guiyang, with a number of areas such as the Pan-Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region.

2-4. Tubu, a small town in Guizhou with a rich culture derived from the Bouyei ethnic group, has turned its homespun fabrics into a profitable industry - connecting its ethnic culture with commerce.

5. The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish radio telescope located in Pingtang county, Guizhou province, started trial operations in September 2016. It has discovered 51 stars bearing features similar to pulsars, 11 of which have been confirmed as new pulsars.

6. Huangguoshu Falls in Guizhou's Anshun city is a household name across the country. After an infrastructure upgrade, the mountainous province's tourism industry has seen a bonanza, with the number of tourists having surpassed that of the popular Yunnan province, according to a local officer.

7. Guizhou Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Area Exhibition Center in the provincial capital, Guiyang city. Guizhou is home to the country's first big data pilot zone. Multinational companies, including Intel, Microsoft, IBM and Apple, have flocked to the province.photos provided to China daily

(HK Edition 09/15/2018 page18)